Valve



Jan. 12 1926. l

a. T. BOLLINGER VALVE Filed August 9. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I 7TORIIEY8 Patented Jan. 12, 1926.

- UNITED STATES GEORGE TINEL BOLLINGER, OE 'LOCKPORT, 'LO' U 'ISIAN A.

VALVE.

Application filed August 9, 1921. Serial No. 490,937.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, GEORGE T. BOLLINGER, a citizen of the'United States, and a resident of Lockport, in the parish of La Fourche and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new 7 and useful Improvements in Valves, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates in general to a valve and more particularly to a steam engine valve adapted to be attached to any cylinder or shot gun steering gear, such as are used on stern wheel steam boats.

The object of the invention is to provide a valve of this character which is susceptible 'of convenient and ready control; which regulates the piston to-travel at a proportionate speed with the controlling device and to stop at the same time therewith, thereby eliminating brakes and indicators and holding the rudder in any position without any effort on the part of the operator; which closes automatically after it has been opened to relieve the operator of the necessity of closing the valve and to preclude possibility of the valve being left open by mistake; which admits steam at the end of the stroke to cushion the piston and prevent it from striking the cylinder heads and which is of simple and durable construction, reliable and efficient in operation and easy and inexpensive to manufacture and install.

Other objects and advantages of the invention reside in certain novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts which will be hereinafter more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, and in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevational View, illustrating the invention organized with a cylinder or shot gun steering gear;

Figure 2 is a view in transverse vertical section through the valve, parts being shown in elevation for the sake of illustration;

Figure'3 is a detail view in top plan of the manually controlled valve;

Figure 4 is a similar view thereof in bottom plan;

Figure5 is a detail view in plan of the cross head or piston controlled valve;

Figure 6 is a viewv thereof in bottom plan;

Figure 7 is a detail view showing thevalve seat in plan, parts being omitted and parts being shown in sectionfor the sake of illustration.

Referring to the drawings, wherein for the sake of illustration is shown the preferred embodiment of the invention, the numeral 10 designates the cylinder of the steam steering gear which may be of any desired type but which is preferably of the shot-gun type. A piston rod 11 having a piston mounted thereon within the cylinder operates through a stuffing box or packing gland 13 provided in one of the cylinder heads and carries at its outer end a cross head 14 operating on the guides 15. The entire steam steering gear assembly is mounted on a framework 16 of suitable con-' struction.

A Valve, designated generally at 20, is mounted on the framework 16 and includes a cylindrical valve casing or body 21having a bottom wall 22 and a top wall 23 removably secured thereto.

The bottom wall 22 is formed to constitute a valve seat 24 and is provided with circumferentially extending pockets 25. Pipes 27 lead from the Pockets to the opposite ends of the cylinder 10 and serve to convey both live and exhaust steam to and from the opposite ends of the cylinder, respectively.

A cross head or piston controlled valve, designated generally at 30, is rotatably mounted within the valve casing 21 and on the valve seat 24. This valve is provided with steam inlet ports 31 which extend therethrough and with exhaust ports 32 which communicate with circumferentially extending exhaust passages 33 provided on the under side of the valve and adapted to communicate with the pockets 25 of the bottom wall of the valve casing. The valve 3O is also provided with a central or axial opening 35 through which a hollow valve stem 36 extends. V The valve stem is secured to. the valve 30. and serves to operate the valve and also serves as an exhaust conduit. For this latter purpose an exhaust pipe 37 is rotatably connected to the lower end of the hollow valve stem 36, suitablepacking 38 being provided in the connection. The exhaustpipe 37 leads to the atmosphere or to a condenser if desired; The bottom wall 21 of the valve casing is'provided'with an opening for the exhaust pipe and with a packing gland 40 for the opening.

. A manually controlled valve is arranged'in the valve casing 21 and superposed on the cross head or piston operated valve 30. Steam inlet ports 46 are provided in the valve 45 and are adapted to be registered with the steam inlet port 31 of the valve to admit steam to one end or the other of the cylinder 10 accordingly as one or the other of the ports 46 are alined with one or the other of the ports 31. On the under side of the valve and extending only part of the way therethrough is a pair of exhaust ports 47 which communicates with each other centrally of the valve. The ports extend from the center of the valve obliquely across the under face thereof so that they not only communicate with each other but also communicate with the hollow stem 36 at all times. A valve stem 49 extends upwardly trom the valve 45 and through the top wall 23 of the valve casing.

' Between the top 01' the valve 45 and the top wall a steam cavity 50 is formed and receives live steam from a steam supply pipe 51 which leads into the cavity from the boiler or any other suitable source of steam supply.

the apex of a V-shaped bracket mounted on the frame 16. A rod or 'arm 61 carried by the cross head 14 is pivotally connected as at 62 to the freee'nd of the link 58. In this manner the motion of the cross head, which corresponds to the motion ofthe piston is transmitted reduced to the operating arm 550i the valve stem 36 and consequently is transmitted to the valve 80 to rotate the valve on its seat 24 and relative to the valve 45.

The valve stem 49 of the valve 45 is provided with an operating arm which is connected to any suitable form of controlling device such as a steering Wheel and tiller line, or lever and bell crank or gear actuated from a control lever. By means of the controlling device tlie manually operated valve 45 is shifted to eiiect the desired control of the lever. When the valve is shifted ne of the steam inlet ports 46 there of is brought into registration with the corresponding steam port 31 of the valve 30 and one of the exhaust ports 47 of the valve 45 then communicates with one of the exhaust. ports 32 of the valve 30, this latter communication being established by virtue of the fact that the valve 30 is moved soas to bring the exhaust port thereof intoregistration with the exhaust passage 47 it being understood that the valve 30 is rotated Lesa e17 immediately after the admission of steam into the cylinder, since when steam is admitted to the cylinder the piston and cross head 14 are moved, and the movement of the cross head is transmitted to the valve 30.

In operation, when the lever 65 is shifted the valve 45 is moved to bring the steam ports and 81 on one side of the valve into registration and to bring the exhaust ports 4? and 82 on the opposite sides of the valves into registration thus permitting the steam to pass through the steam inlet ports on one side of the valves, one of the pockets 25 and one of the pipes 27 into one end of the cylinder and permitting he steam to exhaust from the opposite end of the cylinder through the other pipe 27, the other pocket 25 and the exhaust ports 32 and 46 on the opposite sides of the valve into the exhaust conduit 36. As the piston moves the cross head 14 rotates the valve 30 through the reduced motion mechanism thus moving the steam inlet ports out of registration and shutting oii the admission of steam and thereby stopping the travel of the piston.

It further travel is needed, the manually operated valve is shifted still further. In this manner the rudders remain in any 'position in which they stop without the aid of brakes because if any pressure tends to move them the cross head must also travel and as the cross head is connected to the valve 30 its movement is transmitted thereto to bring the opposite steam inlet port into registration and admit steam in the opposite end of the cylinder to bring aboutan equalization of pressure whereby to hold the rudder in adjusted position.

' Iclaim:

'1. A valve comprising avalve casing having a bottom wall provided with a valve seat and arcuate steam pockets, a rotary valve operating onsaid valve seat and having steam inlet ports extending there through, exhaust ports extending therethrough and exhaust passages communicating with said exhaust ports and extending around the under side ofthe valve and communicating with the arciiate pockets, ahollow valve stem extending through said valve and-constituting an exhaust conduit, a second valve superposed on saidfirstmentioned valve and havingsteam inlet ports extending therethrough "and adapted to be alternately registered with the "steam inlet ports of the first mentioned valve and having exhaust passages communicating with each other an d with the hollow valve stem and adapted to communicate with the exhaust ports of the first mentioned valve,'a top wall for said valve casing defining with said valve a steam cavity and a steam inlet to said steam cavity.

2. In a steainsteering gear including a cylinder having a piston operated therein and a cross head connected with the piston, a valve comprising a valve casing having a bottom wall provided with a valve seat and arcuate steam pockets, steam pipes leading from said steam pockets to the opposite ends ofthe cylinder, a rotary valve operating on said valve seat and having steam inlet ports extending therethrough, exhaust passages communicating with said exhaust ports and extending around the under side of the valve and communicating with the arcuate pockets, a hollow valve stem eXtending through and secured to said valve, motion transmission means between the cross head and said hollow valve stem for transmitting the motion of the cross head reduced to the hollow valve stem, a manually operated valve superposed on said first-mentioned valve andv having steam ports extending therethrough adapted to be alternately registered with the steam ports of the firstmentioned valve and having exhaust passages communicating with each other and with the hollow valve stem and adapted to communicate with the exhaust ports of the first-mentioned valve, a top wall for said valve casing defining with said manually 0p- 

